Pharmacist Linked to Meningitis Outbreak Busted

Airport arrest first bust in case that caused 64 deaths
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 5, 2014 5:41 AM CDT
Pharmacist Linked to Meningitis Outbreak Busted
Glenn Adam Chin, left, a former supervisory pharmacist at the New England Compounding Center, walks with his attorney after appearing in federal court yesterday.   (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A pharmacist linked to a meningitis outbreak that killed 64 people in 2012 was arrested yesterday as he tried to leave the country. Glenn Adam Chin oversaw the mold and bacteria-infested "clean rooms" at the New England Compounding Center, and investigators accuse him of covering up unsafe practices, the AP reports. He was arrested as he tried to board a flight from Boston to Hong Kong and is now under house arrest and has had to turn in his passport. Chin, the first person arrested in the case, was charged yesterday with one count of mail fraud—relating to a contaminated steroid injection labeled as sterile—but prosecutors say they are looking at a "host of other criminal conduct."

Some 751 people developed fungal meningitis after receiving contaminated injections, and many survivors were left disabled. "I am so mad about this, because this could have been prevented," a Michigan woman who developed a spine infection from a contaminated injection tells the Boston Globe. "If this guy only knew all the people who died and the pain we went through, he wouldn't leave the country," she says. "He would stand up and say, 'I am sorry about it,' and not try to run and hide." Chin's lawyer calls the bust a "publicity stunt" and says he was just going to a family wedding. (More meningitis stories.)

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